The Australian Grand Prix, the first round of this year's Formula 1 World Championship, got underway with the two ninety minute free practice sessions. As usual, Friday's work centred on finding the best set-up on the car and a comparison of the two types of tyre that Bridgestone supplied to the team.

"The start of a new season is always a special feeling," commented Stefano Domenicali. "From a personal point of view, I cannot deny that this is a special day, my first on the pit wall as the head of the Gestione Sportiva. We are not entirely satisfied with the way practice went and we still have to work on finding the right balance on the car, both for qualifying tomorrow and for Sunday's race."

Kimi Raikkonen: "I am not very happy with the way practice went. This morning we found some good settings for the car, but in the afternoon, we struggled and our lap times reflect that. We must look carefully at the data to work out how to improve the car. We have seen that if we manage to find the right set-up, we have the potential to be competitive."

Felipe Massa: "All in all, I am happy with this start to the season. We were able to work towards the race and I think I will be able to run at a good pace on a long run. Because of going off the track, I was unable to try the last set of soft tyres available to me, but that's certainly not a big problem. The harder tyres are very consistent, while the other compound gives more grip on the first lap, but then suffers from greater degradation."

Luca Baldisserri: "A bit of a complicated day, especially in the second session. The set- up of Kimi's F2008 in the afternoon was certainly not the best and we need to work out exactly why. As for Felipe, he was pretty happy with the handling of his car. At the end, the Brazilian had an off-track excursion which meant he was forced to end his work programme a bit prematurely and it bore testimony to the fact that, this year, the margin for error is virtually nonexistent. Now we must prepare as well as possible for qualifying and the race. The weather conditions are very difficult and will provide a stern test of the cars's reliability."

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